THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said it has greenlighted 102 economic zone developer-locator projects with P80.585 billion worth of investments in the first half of the year, a 258-percent increase from the P22.489-billion investments recorded in the same period last year.
With this, PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga expressed optimism that the investment promotion agency will “sustain” its growth path for the second half of 2023.
“We remain optimistic that we will sustain our positive growth trajectory for the second half of the year, given the notable increase in our [key performance indicators] KPIs on investments, jobs and exports from a more aggressive whole-of-government approach in investment promotion,” Panga said in a statement on Monday.
With the approved 102 new/expansion projects in the first six months of the year, PEZA said 1,805,770 direct jobs are expected to be generated.
Meanwhile, the investment promotion agency said US$25.934 billion worth of exports are expected to be generated from the 102 new/expansion projects.
Of the 102 new/expansion projects, PEZA said 43 ecozones are into the export sector; 24 are in the Information Technology (IT); 10 are ecozone facilities; 10 are ecozone development; 3 ecozone domestic market-oriented projects; 2 ecozone utilities, and 10 ecozone logistics.
For the month of June alone, however, PEZA said it greenlighted P32.558 billion worth of investments, a 814.31-percent increase from the P3.561 recorded in June 2022.
These investments for June 2023 are equivalent to 22 projects while there are $481.88 billion worth of projected exports from these investment approvals.
For June alone, PEZA said it expects to generate 3,475 jobs from the 22 greenlighted projects.
Moving forward, PEZA said it is ramping up its investment promotion and facilitation initiatives to bring in much-needed foreign direct investments (FDIs) into the country.
Meanwhile, the PEZA chief unveiled that for June alone, the investment promotion agency welcomed several French, Czech, and Dongguan delegations to the Philippines and facilitated the learning visit and study tour of the Ugandan and Papua New Guinean delegation.
“PEZA likewise received delegations from China, Taiwan, and Japan in the first semester of the year,” Panga said.
Panga stressed anew that with the inclusion of the ecozone development program in the country’s medium-term plan (2023-2028), “we aim to develop more ecozones in rural and new growth areas and introduce new frontiers catering to emerging and niche industries.”